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Alan decided to bat first on an unfamiliar pitch at Stocksfield, confident we had a good batting line up. Ben and Chris were reunited and put on 24 for the first wicket, Chris then adjudged lbw for 11 (2 fours). Ben was getting into his stride and was joined by James Welch. James was adjudged run out for 6 and in came Davo. Ben was then bowled by a slower one and Rowlands main man was gone for 40 (6 fours and a six and MoM for Rowlands). Runs were hard to come by and the fielding was keen. Davo was bowled for 9 (1 four) and Ralph became the new main man. He copied Ben and hit the target tree at mid off for a huge 6 but was bowled for 13 while Roy played second fiddle, allegedly swatting Don's Ulgham flies that had made the trip over. Roy got 5, Alan focused on the same flies for 2, Archie swished for nothing and Pratty knuckled down for 1. Don got another rare bat, scored at a run per ball and was not out 1. Rowlands made 98-8 off 14 overs and this was never enough! Stocksfield had bowled well with first change Paul Watson achieving 4-1-12-3 and second change Emerson Brown 3-0-21-3. Brian almost had to borrow some pads!
Stocksfield made no mistakes and a good opening partnership more or less saw them home Nick Armstrong batted through for 54 not out and Watson made 23 before Pratty bowled him. Ian bowled the best with 4-0-17-1 to give Rowlands a chance, supported by a split shift from Davo resulting in 3-0-24-0. Don did OK with some generally tight bowling and 4-0-28-1, bowling out the left handed number 3. James Welch was asked to make up the overs and he managed 2.3-0-24-0 but could not prevent the inevitable as Alan marshalled his field attempting to plug too many gaps. Archie was alert as ever but denied his stumping appeals. Stocksfield were into the Cup Final with 100-2 and 5 balls to spare. Where was Richie when we needed him?!
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